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Government Accountability Office (GAO)

United States government agency
Also known as: GAO, General Accounting Office
Written byRobert W. Kolb
Robert W. Kolb
Professor of Finance/Frank W. Considine Chair of Applied Ethics, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University, Chicago. He contributed an article on “Government Accountability Office” to SAGE Publications’ Encyclopedia of Governance (2007), and a version of this article was used for his Britannica entry on this topic.
Fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
Updated:
Date:
1921 - present
Areas Of Involvement:
government finance
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Government Accountability Office (GAO), agency of the U.S. federal government that reports to Congress and bills itself as independent and nonpartisan. Founded in 1921 as the General Accounting Office, it was renamed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2004. The name change was intended in part to clarify the agency’s functions, among which accounting played, and still plays, only a small part. The agency is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 11 other offices in major cities across the United States.

The GAO is assigned to monitor various governmental agencies and their expenses. It studies the effectiveness of governmental expenditures, focusing primarily on the executive branch. The GAO seeks to make government more accountable and more effective in managing programs and spending tax dollars.

Because the GAO principally monitors the programs of the executive branch, it is specifically removed from the purview of the executive. The comptroller general of the United States heads the GAO. A special congressional committee recommends candidates for comptroller general, and the president makes a nomination from the list; the nominee is then confirmed by the Senate for a single term of 15 years.

The professional staff of the GAO is organized into teams covering single areas such as health care, defense capabilities and management, and acquisition and sourcing management. It issues reports on a broad range of topics related to government concerns, such as the food stamp program, minority representation in the federal workforce, and human trafficking. All of the GAO’s reports appear on its Web site, and the public may request free printed copies of the reports as well. The creation and dissemination of such a wide range of studies requires the GAO to have a staff of experts in many fields, including analysts, information technology specialists, financial auditors, economists, attorneys, and communication analysts.

In spite of a long and generally well-maintained reputation for objectivity, the GAO has often come under criticism. Objections to the agency’s work generally pertain to the findings in specific reports rather than to the overall quality or objectivity of the agency.

Robert W. Kolb